Neal Maupay compounds Arsenal’s woes after netting a last-gasp goal to give Brighton a 2-1 win over the Gunners, who had earlier seen goalkeeper Bernd Leno stretchered off.
Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper, Leno, appeared to have buckled his knee after he was pushed by Maupay as the two competed for an aerial ball before half-time as shown on replay.
It’s now another key player for Arsenal injured yet again since the restart of the League but the Gunners put their disappointment behind them to take the lead after the break, with Nicolas Pepe curling in a stunning opener after 68 minutes.
Their lead, however, didn’t last very long as Lewis Dunk slid in to bundle home an equaliser from close range following a corner seven minutes later.
And in the fifth minute of added-time, Brighton’s forward, Neal Maupay ended a controversial afternoon with the winning goal, running onto Aaron Connolly’s one-two before lifting the ball over replacement goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to end the game in chaos.
Arsenal has now lost back-to-back games since the Premier League returned – results that surely make a late run to Champions League qualification very unlikely.
They may yet navigate the remainder of the season without key player, Leno, who will likely be sidelined along with defender Pablo Mari and midfielder Granit Xhaka, who were injured during Wednesday’s 3-0 loss at Manchester City.
Arsenal have now lost home and away in a season for the first time ever to Brighton but the most painful take away from the game would be the fact that they were the better side for longer period of the game as opposed to the last match at the Etihad.
Brighton now has recorded its first league win of 2020 giving them a breathing space in the fight against relegation with a five-point cushion over the bottom three.
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Facts and Stats from the game
- Nicolas Pepe’s opener was his seventh goal in all competitions for Arsenal, but his first scored outside London.
- Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who was one goal shy of half a century of goals for the Gunners had seven shots against Brighton, the highest number of shots he’s had in a single match for the Gunners without scoring (all competitions).
- 18-year-old Bukayo Saka has provided 11 assists in all competitions this season, at least three more than any other Arsenal player.
- At 94 minutes and 26 seconds, Neal Maupay’s winner was the latest Premier League goal Brighton has ever scored, while it was also the latest winning goal scored against Arsenal in the competition since exact goal-time data became available (2006-07).
- The win against Arsenal was Brighton’s 100th victory in all competitions at the Amex Stadium since moving to the ground in 2011.
- Lewis Dunk scored his sixth Premier League goal for Brighton, with Arsenal the only team he’s scored more than once against (2).
- Brighton has also lost four of the six Premier League games in which Dunk has scored, with the exceptions being in those games against Arsenal (2-1 in 2017-18, 2-1 today).
- Excluding penalties, only Aston Villa (15) have conceded more goals from set-piece situations than Arsenal this season (13), with Brighton’s leveler today coming from a corner.
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